Sorry about the flash back but "How am I ever going to fill my Seagate 20 MB HDD?" It is amazing to me that we are taling about 10, 12, 14TB drives in the same form factor and I am not even ready to retire yet. 512 GB on a micro SD card where my biggest concern is losing them because they are so small.

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I'm not sure I would want all that data on one drive in case something went wrong. I've had two drives fail on me in the past month. I got a copy of EaseUS which touch wood seems to be doing a pretty good job of recovering my files but I'm going to need to leave it running all night to read a 2TB drive. If it was a 14TB drive I'd need to leave it running for about a week!

Regardless of file size, there are a few basic fundamentals to keep in mind concerning storage:

1) If it's IMPORTANT, it should be stored on more than one drive/media. ALL storage media fails at some point.

2) In regards to HDD's, (most) external drives are not meant to be used as additional storage for a PC and run 24/7 or even every time the PC is powered on. Spinning drives create heat, and heat kills HDD's. Most external cases are poorly ventilated and few have actual cooling. They are meant to be A - portable, and B - used for safe storage. ie: power the drive up, copy data on or off, and then powered off and stored.

3) Refer to item 1

As to the actual discussion, I would be hesitant to buy a first generation model of a new drive size. Historically, first generation drives (and hardware in general) suffer from the most issues. Having said that, I would treat this purchase like any other. In other words, I would choose by brand, warranty, and support.

The only major drawback to newer, bigger drives, is that when they fail, you loose more data. But if you are safe with your important data anyway, this is a non factor.